The Importance of Being Earnest Study Guide

Chapter Summaries

The Importance of Being Earnest Summary

A man named Jack Worthington is a protagonist in this fantastic play. He is a well-known and major contributor to the Hertfordshire community. He also takes care of, Cecily Cardew. Cecily is a stunning granddaughter of Thomas Cardew who passed away some time ago. She is eighteen years old. It was Thomas who took Jack into care for him as a baby.

Jack has many responsibilities in Hertfordshire. He takes all of them very seriously. His responsibilities include:
Being a well-known land owner, with plenty of tenants, a justice of the peace, a farmer with many servants, and a manager of a large number of employees. All of the employees depend on him.
For a long time now, Jack acted as though his brother Ernest was a black-sheep. This so called brother was one of trouble and scandal. He was always needing Jack to come to his aid. However, this brother is not true at all.
Jack is the only one who knows Earnest’s name and what he is like. In fact, Jack calls himself Earnest while he is in London.

Before we know it, Jack falls in love with a woman named Gwendolen Fairfax. She is a cousin of his best friend who is called Algernon Moncrieff. We first see Algernon believing that Jack’s name is Ernest. But he soon becomes suspicious that something is not right with Jack.

During the first Act of the play, we see Jack visiting Algernon unannounced. He informs him that he wants to marry his sister. However, because Algernon found Jack’s cigarette case, he showed it to him and insisted that he tell him what was going on. He needed to know who “Cecily” and “Jack”